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BILL BUGH ON CINCINNATI

The following excerpts are from an interview conducted by Dinah, a monthly publication of the Cincinnati Lesbian Activists Bureau, Inc., with Bill Bugh who is co-owner of Darwin's, a popular Cincinnati gay disco.

We wish to publically thank Dinah for allowing us to reprint these excerpts and encourage interested readers to contact Dinah at P.O. Box 24 257, Cincinnati, Ohio 45224 for subscription information on their publication.

up. Three 5 minute segments certainly cannot do this subject justice. And I left it at that. Then he asked if I would allow him to come in and film with the place empty. I said I'd have to think about it but he'd have to do a lot of research. This is just the tip of the iceberg what people see and know this is what they put down as the den of inequity, debauchery.

He asked specific questions about statistics such as how many gay people there are. I replied from 5,000 to 60,000. We don't know because no one has cared to research it and even if they did people may not respond because of fear for their jobs. He got some interviews at Adam's Rib, but they didn't satisfy him..

MEDIA CONTRACT: "Four or five months ago I was contacted by Steve Douglas, Channel 5. It seems a newswriter or someone and his wife had been brought in by a regular client. We hadn't been open long. They were shocked to see it, was such a big place and jammed on Saturday night with so many people. It was hashed over in the news room and they felt it was a marvelous opening for a feature on the 11 o'clock news. The gay life in Cincinnati. This occured approximately a month after the Rivertown Free Press had a full page article on gay life in Cincinnati which was distributed to many businesses. It was written of by one our customers originally for the Enquirer Sunday magazine feature section but they refused it.

Steve Douglas wanted 5 minute segments to be used over a 3 night period and said he would like to bring a camera crew in and film. I said absolutely not. I'm a business man and this would run me out of business in 3 minutes. I don't think you know what kind of Pandora's box you're opening

HIGH GEAR/MAY 1977

By Sandie Garsie

POLICE HARASSMENT: I can't give specific times and dates but I feel that we're being watched closely. Harassment is relative to the area we're in.. Compared to Columbus (where he and his lover own another gay bar-Ty's) we see more police there and have far fewer problems. We've never had a liquor violation in Columbus but here we've had two in 9 months. believe they're set-ups although I don't think they're trying to close us down.

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I can buy wholesale and sell 3.2 beer, but I choose not to. Allowing minors in means someone else could buy a drink for a minor and in the end I'm responsible. The bartender gets arrested for furnishing liquor to a minor, he goes to court and has a misdemeanor, one of the highest just under a felony. For a liquor violation my permit can be revoked. But I go to Columbus state liquor board and may get a 7 to 14 day suspension and have to close.

I was trying to discourage him saying I thought he was going for the sensational. We had a heated deep rooted conversation. Then he threatened to position a film crew outside the bar and to film the exterior of all the bars. All I could do then was submit to an interview which was done in the afternoon, empty bar, full face, without my name or the bar's name used. There were only 4 or 5 questions. In spite of the interview, they scrapped the whole thing.

Direct police harassment in Cincinnati takes the form of jay walking tickets in a desolate area from 1 o'clock to 3 in the morning. It often comes from rookies or officers who don't like queers. Another example is that July 4th at midnight was the deadline for all people who have Hamilton Co. license plates to get their safety lane stickers. 50 tickets were given in my parking lot on July 4th. Many clubs have large parking lots with lots of cars. I don't know if they got to them, but they did mine and there's not a damn thing that can be done about it.

CINCINNATI: Cincinnati is a large sophisticated city with culture, art, downtown area but is unbelievably conservative. People coming in for a weekend job or appointment don't realize the conservatism which is insidious, strange, subversive. It is progressive in many ways but there is a lot of apathy here.

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LIQUOR LICENSING: The State of Ohio controls liquor retail or wholesale. Wholesale only saves me about me about 3% per bottle which I'm taxed for at the end of the year. So we end up paying what you do per bottle buying it at a liquor store for your own consumption.

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a plaque from Dignity. The members would come down to the bar after their meetings and continue the rap sessions. I don't understand the apathy in Cincinnati.

ON LESBIANS

I think that lesbians are bringing the men along. Lesbian groups seem to be the most active politically. Although Darwin's is almost exclusively men, 2% gay women, they know they're welcome and I've worked hard on the staff to convince them of this. I think that women would be very supportive of a small lounge. However, for a bar this size I wouldn't want to see it go all lesbian because most gay women are beer drinkers and you don't make money on beer.

A license is relatively easy to obtain but expensive to buy on the open market. You can receive a liquor license free from the liquor department but it may take 2 years and you have to put money into legal fees. You can buy a liquor license if you put on the market at whatever the market bears from $5,000 to $25,000 just for the permit. You can't buy a permit per se, you must buy a business which consists of one bar stool and a liquor license. One piece of bar equipment makes it a business which is how people get around it. The regulation states that high powered spirits or malt liquor beer may not be sold to anyone under 21.

GAY MOVEMENT: I think things have to come about like the black movement but without as much radicalism. Gay people. are not as radical and are nonviolent. But I'm personally impressed with the progress made in the last ten years. We're one of the last areas. I think it comes from the coasts in. We do have in Ohio that private conduct is legal.

High Gear, out of Cleveland, Ohio, is distributed over the bar free. Ty's in Columbus which is run with the identical philosophy as Darwin's was presented with

THE RIGHT SECURITY

It's hard under the Ohio liquor laws to run a membership type of club. However, the crowd is what keeps the men out by the attitude adopted. For example, at Jack's in Columbus a gay male can get in with a woman but he'll be told that it's a $10 cover which is not exactly illegal.

I made a mistake, one which I admit, because of a fight between women at a parking lot near Ty's. The cops came into the bar. They didn't go to the parking lot although Darwin was trying to tell them that was where the fight was and it was still going on and to his knowledge one of the girls had a knife. But the cops took a tour of the bar, checking to see if anyone was drinking after hours. Meanwhile the fight is

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